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AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 



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REPORT 



I (J 



COMMITTEE ON ANTI-SLAVERY MEMORIALS, 



SEPTEMBER, 1845. 



HISTORICAL STATEMENT OF PREVIOUS PROCEEDINGS- 



— ojo— 



BOSTON: 

PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
1 845. 



Sa ExchaEifri" , 



im 2 4 1916 









REPORT, &c, 



At the Annual Meeting of the American Board of Commission- 
ers for Foreign Missions, held in Worcester, September, 1844, 
sundry memorials relating to the alleged connection of the Board 
and the missions under its care with Slavery, were presented, 
and referred to a committee, consisting of the Rev. Drs. Woods, 
Tyler, Tappan, and Stowe, Chancellor Walworth, Hon. Thos. 
W. Williams, and Rev. Messrs. S. L. Pomroy, J. W. McLane, 
D. Sandford, and D. Greene. During that meeting the commit- 
tee presented a Report, in part, which was adopted by the Board. 
In relation, however, to the admission of certain persons, holding 
slaves, to some of the niission churches, one of the topics intro- 
duced by the memorialists, the committee, not having knowledge 
of all the facts, asked to be continued, that they might obtain 
further information, and report at the next annual meeting. 
This request was granted. The desired information was ob- 
tained ; and the committee met in Boston on the 27th of Au- 
gust last, when the draft of a Report, prepared in view of the 
information received, was presented ; which, after a full discus- 
sion of the principles that should be adhered to in the case, was 
given into the hands of a sub-committee to be modified. I'lis 
was done. The committee again met by adjournment in Brook- 
lyn, on the morning of September 9th, and spent a large part of 
the day in considering the amended Report. After further dis- 
cussion, and the suggestion of further alterations, the Report, in 
the form in which it is given on the following pages, was unani- 
mously agreed upon on the Kith, and signed by all the members 
of the cotnmittee, except Mr. Pomroy, whose absence from the 
country deprived the committee of his aid. 

It will be seen that the committee confined themselves to the 
one topic which was properly before them, except as others 
came incidentally in their way. 

The Report was submitted to the Board on the morning of the 
10th, and was discussed through the remainder of that day and 
evening, and through the forenoon of the following day ; wlien, 



4 

with some proposed amendments, and the memorials which had 
been j)resented during the meeting, it was referred to a new 
committee, consisting of Chief Justice Williams, Rev. Drs. Tap- 
pan, Bacon, and Stowe, Rev. J. C. Webster, and D. Greene. 
On the morning of the 12th, after a consideration of the subject, 
this committee reported, recommending the adoption of the 
original Report, without amendment or addition. Some further 
discussion ensued in the Board, after which the vote on adopting 
the Report was taken by yeas and nays, and was unanimous in 
the affirmative. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 

The Committee to whom, at the last annual meeting of this 
Board, were referred certain memorials relating to the Board's 
alleged connection with slavery, having been instructed to seek 
further information concerning the admission of slave-holders to 
churches under the care of the missionaries of the Board, have 
made the inquiries directed, and now ask leave to report. 

The committee do not deem it necessary to discuss the gen- 
eral subject of Slavery, as it exists in these United States, or to 
enlarge on the wickedness of the system, or on the disastrous 
moral and social influences which slavery exerts upon the less 
enlightened and less civilized communities where the missiona- 
ries of this Board are laboring. On these points there is proba- 
bly, among the members of the Board and its friends, little differ- 
ence of opinion. 

'J'he committee propose to confine themselves mainly to a 
statement of some of the principles which should govern the 
Board and its missionaries in prosecuting their work so as to se- 
cure the highest measure of the divine approbation, and most 
effectually and speedily to accomplish the great object in view; 
together with a statement of the principal facts relating to the 
connection of persons holding slaves with mission churches 
under the care of the Board. 

Among the principles which the committee would present for 
the consideration of the Board, and which they regard as funda- 
mental, and to be adhered to in planning and conducting every 
mission undertaken under the authority of the great Redeemer 
and Head of the Church, are the following: 

1. In the manner of preaching the gospel, judging of the 
evidences of piety in professed converts, gathering churches, 
administering the ordinances and exercising discipline, there 
should be a close conformity to the commission given by Christ 
to his followers, and to the recorded instructions and acts of his 
inspired apostles. These are found in the New Testament, and 
are the models and the laws, which, in all important matters, are 



to govern those who propagate the gospel and minister to the 
churches in Christ's name. 

2. The primary object aimed at in missions should be to 
bring men to a saving knowledge of Christ, by making known to 
them the way of salvation through his cross. It has regard to 
individual character, and is an object simple in itself and purely 
spiritual. The commission given by Christ evidently contem- 
plates the work to be done as one that is to be wrought in indi- 
vidual men, regarded as rational and immortal beings ; all of 
whom, of every grade and condition, having great interests alike, 
the more important of which lie in another state of existence. 
To these interests, primarily and mainly, and to that change of 
individual character and conduct which is indispensable to se- 
cure them, the Christian missionary is to direct his labors. If 
other objects less spiritual and important are connected with the 
enterprise as predominant objects of interest and pursuit, they 
impair its efficiency and endanger the great result. 

'^. As the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's supper are 
obviously designed by Christ to be means of grace for all who 
give credible evidence of repentance and faith in him, these or- 
dinances cannot scripturally and rightly be denied to professed 
converts from among the heathen, after they shall have given 
such evidence. 

4. The missionaries, acting under the commission of Christ, 
and with the intructions of the New Testament before them, are 
themselves, at first, and subsequently, in connection with the 
churches they have gathered, the rightful and exclusive judges 
of what constitutes adequate evidence of piety and fitness for 
church fellowship in professed converts. They alone can be 
fully acquainted with all the circumstances affecting the devel- 
opement of piety in individuals, and intelligently form an opin- 
ion how far they are aiming to conform their character and con- 
duct to the doctrines and precepts of the Bible. 

5. Both before and after professed converts are received to 
church fellowship and the ordinances are administered to them, 
the missionaries should give them such instructions from the 
gospel as they believe to be, in their circumstances, best adapted 
to nurture and develope all the Christian graces, and lead to 
the practice of all the Christian duties. The indulgence of any 
known sin and the neglect of any known duty is to be decidedly 
discountenanced. 

Such your committee deem to be the divinely established 
principles according to which the missionary work among une- 
vangelized nations should be prosecuted ; and in this simple 
manner only, as it seems to them, can the thoughts and feeling.s of 
the heallien and oihei" unevangelized communities be so turned 
towards God and their relations to him, and be brought into such 
a spiritual relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, aa will at length 



6 

lead to the correction of all the social wrongs and disorders 
which now, in various forms, so much afflict the benighted and 
idolatrous portions of our race. 

Civil and religious liberty, improvement in civilization and 
the arts of life, and the introduction of the best social institutions, 
admitted to be indispensable to the highest well-being nf a com- 
munity, are still secondary to the one primary object of securing 
holiness in the hearts of individuals. Aiming steadily at this is 
the way for the missionary most surely and speedily to work out 
the others; and your committee believe that it is only by regard- 
ing these classes of objects in their proper relations, and keeping 
them in their proper places, and pursuing them in their proper 
order, that either can be effectually attained and permanently 
established on the broad field of the world. 

In respect to the social and moral evils with which missiona- 
ries are to come into contact in prosecuting their work among 
the benighted nations, and in relation to which the foregoing 
principles are believed by your committee to apply, it should be 
borne in mind that they are by no means few, or of limited ter- 
ritorial extent. The evils of slavery will probably be met in 
some form, in nearly every part of the great missionary field, and 
the principles adopted must affect the whole scheme for evangel- 
izing the world ; and are, therefore, of the utmost importance, 
and should be most carefully examined and settled. The unnat- 
ural state of society in which these evils originate is one of ihe 
consequences of human depravity — of that all-absorbing selfish- 
ness — tiiat predominance of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the 
eye, and the pride of life, which are developed in our ftdlen na- 
ture. This state of society is to be rectified by diminishing the 
power of that terrible principle in which this, as well as all other 
wickedness and moral disorders originate. Involuntary servitude 
is believed to pervade nearly the whole of the African continent, 
though with widely different degrees of severity. In some form 
it exists in many, if not all parts of India. It pervades Siam and 
nearly all Mohammedan communities ; and it will probably be 
found, in some of its modifications, in China and Japan. 

The unrighteousness of the principles on which the whole 
system is based, and the violation of the natural rights of man, 
the debasement, wickedness, and misery it involves, and which 
are in fact witnessed, to a greater or less extent, wherever it ex- 
ists, must call forth the hearty condemnation of all possessed of 
Christian feeling and sense of right, and make its entire and 
speedy removal an object of earnest and prayerful desire to every 
true friend of God and man. This object, as your committee 
believe, can be effected in no other manner, than by tlie preva- 
lence, in these conununities, of that regard for justice and human 
rights and that humane and philanthropic feehng of which Chris- 
tian knowledge and piety are the only permanent basis. 



But slavery is not the only social wrong to be met in the pro- 
gress of the missionary work, and to which the principles wliich 
are adopted in prosecuting that work must probably be applied. 
There are the castes of India, deeply and inveterately inwrought 
in the very texture of society, causing to the mass of the people 
hereditary and deep degradation, leading to the most inhuman 
and contemptuous feelings and conduct in social life, and pre- 
senting most formidable barriers to every species of improve- 
ment. There are also the unrestrained exactions, made in the 
form of revenue, or of military or other service, connected with a 
species of feudalism, prevailing in many unenlightened commu- 
nities, which are most unrighteous in their character and para- 
lyzing in their influence, and cause unlimited distress to individ- 
uals and families. There are also those various forms and de- 
grees of oppression, whether of law or of usage, prevailing under 
the arbitrary governments which bear sway over the larger part 
of the earth's surface. So that the principles which we draw 
from the word of God for our guidance as a missionary society, 
are not for use among a few pagan tribes merely, but among 
nearly all the benighted nations of the earth. 

Is this Board, then, in propagating the gospel, to be held re- 
sponsible for directly working out these reorganizations of the 
social system, without giving Christian truth time to produce its 
changes in the hearts of individuals and in public sentiment, and 
without being allowed to make any practical use of those most 
effective influences which are involved — in respect to all who 
have grace in their hearts — in the special ordinances of the gos- 
pel ? Or, should it be found, as the result of experience, that 
souls among the heathen are, in fact, regenerated by the Holy 
Spirit, before they are freed from all participation in these social 
and moral evils, and that convincing evidence can be given that 
they are so regenerated, — then may not the master and the slave, 
the ruler and the subject, giving such evidence of spiritual reno- 
vation, be all gathered into the same fold of Christ ? And may 
they not all there and in this manner, under proper teaching, 
learn the great lesson (so difiicult for partially sanctified men to 
learn) that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, nei- 
ther bond nor free ; but that all are one in him ? And may they 
not, under these influences, have effectually nurtured in them 
those feelings of brotherly love, and that regard for each other's 
rights and welfare, in which alone is found the remedy for all 
such evils] Under such influences may' not the master be 
prepared to break the bonds of the slave, and the oppressive ruler 
led to dispense justice to the subject, and the proud Brahmin 
fraternally to embrace the man of low caste; and each to do it 
cheerfully, because it is humane and right, and because thcsy are 
all children of the great household of God ? By such influences, 
mainly, is not the great moral transformation to be wrought in 



8 

the master and the ruler, in the bondman and the oppressed, all- 
important to both, and the only sure guaranty for permanent 
improvement in the social character and condition of either? 

In proceeding on these principles the missions under the care 
of this Board and the churches gathered by them, are no other- 
wise connected with slavery, than they are with every other evi- 
dence and result of imperfect moral renovation in their converts 
and church members ; and they no more really give their sanc- 
tion to the one, than they do to all the others. Wherever the 
gospel is brought to bear upon the community where slavery or 
any other form of oppression exists, its spirit is decidedly adverse 
to such a state of things, tending to mitigate the evils of it while 
it continues, and ultimately, and in the most desirable manner, 
wholly to do it away, — not by constraint, nor with violence; but 
on those principles of Christian love which this Board and its 
missionaries are seeking to implant in every bosom, and to invest 
with all possible power to govern the hearts and the conduct of 
men. 

Such is the view which your committee take of the missionary 
work, and such are the principles which, it seems to them, 
should be adhered to in prosecuting it. How far ecclesiastical 
bodies in this country may properly instruct foreign missionaries 
connected with them, on these subjects, it is not for this com- 
mittee to decide. It is obvious, however, that the points on 
which this Board, after having selected missionaries in whose 
character and qualifications they confide, should insist, are such 
as are embraced in the principles already dwelt upon. 

These principles, your committee believe, do not interfere with 
that liberty which Christ designed his ministers should possess, or 
that responsibility with which he invests them, when he sends them 
forth to preach his gospel in heathen lands. If missionaries es- 
sentially depart from these principles, and persevere in so doing, 
they should be recalled as incompetent or unfaithful to their 
trust. How far holding slaves or any thing else involving what 
is morally wrong, and which still clings to the heathen convert, 
affects the evidence that a principle of grace has been implanted 
in his heart, the missionary, in view of his commission, the 
instructions of the New Testament, and all the circumstances of 
the case, as they are present before him, must in connection 
with his church, and under a solemn sense of responsibility to 
Christ, form his judgment, and on that judgment he must act. 
Surely no other persons are in circumstances so favorable as he, 
for deciding and acting correctly. Such freedom and such re- 
sponsibility in the missionary, your committee believe, cannot be 
materially abridged, without the most disastrous consequences to 
the missionary's own happiness and efficiency, and to the wel- 
fare of the heathen. 

Having gone so fully into an exposition of the principles on 



which, in their opinion, the New Testament requires missiona- 
ries to proceed in preaching the gospel and administering the 
Christian ordinances, the committee would now spread before 
the Board the proceedings of the missionaries, so far as connect- 
ed with the subject under consideration. 

The committee believe that no established system of involun- 
tary servitude prevails among any tribe of North American In- 
dians, where tiie missionaries of this Board are laboring, except 
the Cherokees and Choctaws ; nor have they been able to learn 
that any of the missionaries of the Board laboring in foreign 
lands, have been called to act on the question of receiving those 
who hold slaves to their churches. l"he following statements 
Avill, therefore, relate to the Cherokee and Choctaw missions. 
From these, full communications have been received in reply to 
inquiries addressed to the several missionaries. 

Negro slaves appear to have been introduced among those In- 
dians by white men who removed into their country from sixty to 
eighty years ago, and to have gradually increased in number till 
the time when the missions of the Board were established among 
them in 1817 and I81S. By a census taken of the Cherokees 
in 1820, there were found to be 583 slaves. The number among 
the Choctaws was probably smaller, though neither the missiona- 
ries nor the committee have the means of ascertaining it defi- 
nitely. Since that time, though the committee are not aware 
that there has been any census, the number is believed to have 
been somewhat increased, almost exclusively, however, by births, 
as there have been few purchases and little trade of any sort in 
slaves. The number now owned by both tribes may probably be 
not far from 2,000 ; while the number of Indians in both is pro- 
bably about 38,000. These slaves are almost exclusively in the 
hands of white men or their descendants of mixed blood, very 
few being possessed by full Indians. 

That slavery should exist at all in these tribes, who have suf- 
fered so severely from the violation of their own rights by their 
white neighbors, is deeply to be regretted ; and ail should ear- 
nestly pray that, as social improvefnent and Christian knowledge 
are rapidly advancing among them, they may speedily and nol)ly 
exemplify the spirit of true philanthropy, as well as the gospel 
law of love, by showing that they duly appreciate the rights and 
welfare of the whole race of man. 

But slavery had been introduced and was existing there, and 
in all the adjacent white communities, when the missionaries of 
the Board entered on their labors among these tribes. They 
were strangers ; no interest was felt in their work as missiona- 
ries. They preached the gospel to all whom they found willing 
to hear them, whatever their complexion or condition. To the 
slaves and their masters, both generally understanding the Eng- 
lish language, they had, at first, more ready access, than to the 
2 



10 

full Indians ; and hence from among these, when the Spirit of 
God gave effect to the truth, some of the earliest, most intelli- 
gent, and most stable converts were found, such as the Browns, 
the Lowreys, the Saunderses, and the Folsoms. 

Relative to the principles on which professed converts were to 
be received to the churches, all the missionaries of the Board 
among the Cherokees and Choctaws seem to have been perfect- 
ly unanimous. " Both masters and slaves," says Mr. Butrick, 
" I received on the same principle, viz. on the ground of their 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." Mr. Worcester says, " The 
general principle on which I have voted for the reception of 
members is, that all are to be received who desire it, and who 
give evidence of a change of heart." Mr. Wright says, " When 
any, whether masters or servants, have given evidence of a saving 
change of heart, of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
they have been received." Substantially the same is the lan- 
guage of all the missionaries. On this principle, of receiving to 
their churches all those, and only those, who gave satisfactory 
evidence of repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they 
all appear to have proceeded. 

Owing to the changes from one church to another which have 
occurred in both these missions, the whole number of slave- 
holders received cannot here be stated precisely. 

The whole number of the Cherokee tribe is probably about 
18,000, and the number of slaves owned by them is probably 
about 1,000. The whole number of members connected with 
our churches in this tribe is 240, of whom 15 hold slaves; 21 
are themselves slaves, and 4 are free negroes. 

The whole population of the Choctaw tribe, including the 
Chickasaws, is about 20,000. The whole number connected 
with our churches there is (503; of whom 20 hold slaves, 131 are 
themselves slaves, and 7 are free negroes. It may also be stated 
that our brethren of the Moravian, Baptist, and Methodist de- 
nominations have churches in both these tribes, to which many, 
both of Indian and African descent, both masters and slaves, 
have been received ; and of the latter, especially, a much larger 
proportion have been gathered into their churches than into 
those connected with our missions. Of the estimated number of 
slaves in these tribes, it may, however, be stated, that about one 
in thirteen are connected with the churches under the care of 
our missions; while of the Indians and other classes of persons, 
less than one in fifty are embraced in the same churches; show- 
ing that the slaves have not, compared with the Indians, been by 
any means neglected. 

In regard to the kind and amount of instruction given by the 
missionaries in relation to slavery, and the duties of masters 
and slaves, the missionaries seem substantially to agree. Mr. 
Byington says, " We give such instructions to masters and ser- 



11 

vants as are contained in the epistles, and yet not in a way to 
give the subject a peculiar prominence. For then it would seem 
to be personal, as there are usually but one or two slave-holders 
at our meetings. In private we converse about all the evils and 
dangers of slavery." Of a similar tenor are the remarks of 
Mr. Wright. "The instructions, public and private, direct 
and indirect, have been such as are found in the Bible. As 
a spiritual watchman, I have wished to coin[>ly wilh that 
direction in Ezek. iii. 17: 'Therefore hear the word from my 
mouth and give them warning from me.' " 

In opinion and practice on this subject there will undoubtedly 
be some diversity among those, in different circumstances, who 
entertain the same views as to the unrighteousness of the system 
of slavery itself, and the desirableness of having it abolished. 
The missionaries of this Board among the Cherokees and Choc- 
taws, and, so far as the committee are infurmed, all missionaries, 
of every denomination, laboring in similar circumstances, among 
those Indians and in all other places, substantially agree in the 
views and practice presented in the foregoing extracts. 

Strongly as your committee are convinced of the wrongfulness 
and evil tendencies of slave-holding, and ardently as they desire 
its speedy and universal termination; still they cannot think that, 
in all cases, it involves individual guilt, in such a manner, that 
every person implicated in it can, on scriptural grounds, be ex- 
cluded from Christian fellowship. In the language of Dr. Chal- 
mers, when treating on this point in a recent letter, the commit- 
tee would say, " Distinction ought to be made between the char- 
acter of a system, and the character of the persons whom circum- 
stances have implicated therewith ; nor would it always be just, 
if all the recoil and horror wherewith the former is contemplated, 
were visited in the form of condemnation and moral indignancy 
upon the latter." Dr. Chalmers proceeds to apply this distinc- 
tion to the subject now under consideration, in the following 
manner, in which sentiments, substantially, Drs. Candlish and 
Cunningham, with the whole General Assembly of the Free 
Church of Scotland, unanimously concur.* Slavery, says he, 
we hold to be a system chargeable with atrocities and evils often 
the most hideous and appalling which have either afflicted or de- 

* The lansuaje of the report, presented by Dr. Candlish, chairman of the committee to 
whom the subject was refeired, and which repoit, the paper containing it says was unani- 
mously adopted by the Gent-ral Assembly, is as follows : 

" Without being prepared to adopt the piinciple that, in the circumstances in which they 
are placed, the chuiches in America ought to consider slave-holding psr sr an insupenible 
barriei in the way of enjoying Christian privileges, or an offence to be visited with ex- 
communication, all must agree in holding that whatever rights the civil law of the land may 
give a master over his slaves, as clmtteii pirsmtal, it cannot but be sin of the deepest <lye in 
him to legard and treat them as such; and whosoever commita tliat sin in any sense, or d -als 
otherwise with bis slaves than as a (-htistian man ought to deal with bis fcllow-man, what- 
ever power the law may give him over lbem,ou>;hl to be held di-qualilied for Christian 
communion. Farther, it must be the opinion of all, Ihat it is the duly "f Christians, when 
they find themselves unhappily, in the predicament of slave-holders, to aim, as far as it may 
be practicable, at the manumission of tlioir slaves; and when that cannot he accomplished, 
to secure them in the enjoyment of the domestic relations, and of the means of ruligioiu 
training. 



12 

formed our species; yet we must not therefore say of every man 
born within its territory, who has grown up familiar with its sick- 
ening spectacles, and not only by his habits been inured to its 
transactions and sights, but who by inheritance is himself the 
owner of slaves, that, unless he make the resolute sacrifice and 
renounce his property in slaves, he is, therefore, not a Christian, 
and should be treated as an outcast from all the distinctions and 
privileges of Christian society. 

Such, substantially, are the views of your committee; and the 
more they study God's method of proceeding in regard to war, 
slavery, polygamy, and other kindred social wrongs, as it is un- 
folded in the Bible, the more they are convinced that, in dealing 
with individuals implicated in these wrongs, of long standing and 
intimately interwoven with the relations and movements of the 
social system, the utmost kindness and forbearance are to be ex- 
ercised, which are compatible with steady adherence to right 
principle. 

The effect of the introduction of Christian knowledge among 
these Indians, so far as masters and slaves have come under instruc- 
tion, has, in the opinion of the missionaries, been highly benefi- 
cial, in respect to the character and conduct of both. The con- 
dition of the latter has been, they think, greatly meliorated. So 
far as the amount of labor required of their slaves, the food, 
clothing, and houses furnished for them, kind social intercourse 
with them, regard for the domestic and family relations and affec- 
tions, and for their comfort generally, and opportunities afforded 
for religious instruction and worship, are concerned, the mission- 
aries think that instances of serious delinquency are very rare, 
among their church members. Should any church member who 
has servants under him be chargeable with cruelty, injustice, or 
unkindness towards them ; should he neglect what is essential to 
their present comfort or their eternal welfare; or should he in 
any manner transgress the particular instructions which the 
apostles give concerning the conduct of a master, he would be 
admonished by the church, and unless he 'should repent he 
would be excommunicated. Such appear, from their communi- 
cations, to be the views of our missionaries; and such a course 
they think their churches would sustain. 

In Christian instruction and care, both of their children and 
their slaves, the missionaries represent these Indian church 
members as being generally, and often greatly, deficient; but not 
much more so in respect to the latter than the former. Converts 
of the first, or even of the second, generation, gathered from 
communities just entering on a course of intellectual, moral, and 
social improvement, will seldom so far rise above their former 
views and habits, or become so far under the control of the new 
influences brought to bear upon them, as to compare advanta- 
geously, in these respects, with nations on which Christian light 



13 

has been shining for centuries. Christianity itself, though re- 
quiring, and adapted to promote, in those who embrace it, the 
highest exemplariness in all the duties of life, does not often 
achieve these great transformations at once. There is to be line 
upon line — precept upon precept — here a little and there a little 
— first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in 
the ear. 

Among the Cherokees and Choctavvs the church members are 
but poorly qualified to give religious instruction ; and often the 
slaves — owing to their better knowledge of the English language, 
and consequently their easier intercourse with the missionaries 
and others — are more intelligent, on religious subjects, than their 
masters. Some of the most eminent instances of well-informed, 
devout, and steadfast piety, in these mission churches, have been 
among them. Individuals of them have been much respected, 
and highly useful in meetings for prayer and exhortation. 

Some of the slave-holders in these churches have been known 
to require their slaves to attend meetings and other opportunities 
for obtaining religious instruction; all are believed to favor their 
doing so; while none have been known to throw obstacles in 
their way. Before it was forbidden by law, in 1841, numbers of 
their slaves were taught to read in Sabbath and some in week- 
day schools; and such instruction is still, to some extent, given 
in private. Seven out of fourteen slaves, members of the Fair- 
field church in the Cherokee country, can read, and one can 
write. Slaves are sometimes called upon to read the Scriptures 
and lead in prayer in the families of their masters. One who 
has been occasionally employed as a helper in the missionary 
work, highly esteemed for his intelligence and exemplary piety, 
has been left, by the will of his master, manager of his property, 
and virtually the guardian of his orphan child and heir. 

The committee cannot advert to some of the laws enacted by 
both the Cherokees and Choctaws, without pain and regret, espe- 
cially those which prohibit teaching slaves to read, throw imped- 
iments in the way of emancipation, restrict slaves in the posses- 
sion of property, and embarrass the residence of free negroes 
among them. Laws of this character, though far less stringent 
than similar laws existing in most of the adjacent slave-holding 
States, are disapproved and lamented by the church members 
generally, it is believed, and by many other intelligent Indians, 
as unjust and oppressive ; and they are not rigorously enforced. 
For these laws, however, neither the missionaries nor the mem- 
bers of the churches under their care, regard themselves as re- 
sponsible. They could have little or no influence to effect their 
repeal. Any direct interference of the missionaries would, in 
their opinion, tend to delay, if not to prevent, rather than to has- 
ten, the accomplishment of the end desired. Changes in these 
respects are to be brought about by the greater prevalence of hu- 



14 

mane and Cliristian feeling throughout these communities; and 
the agency of the missionary in effecting them is not to be like 
that whicli works out a political revolution, but that which results, 
by the divine blessing, in great moral changes in the hearts of 
individual men. 

Slavery was introduced among these Indians, and has been 
regulated by them, in unhappy imitation of their white neighbors 
in the adjacent States. Whether the Indians will be the first to 
abolish it, must depend very much on that power from above 
which shall attend the prevalence of Christian knowledge among 
them. This consummation, which justice, humanity, and Chris- 
tian principle demand should be hastened, none, the committee 
believe, more fervently desire and pray for, than do the missiona- 
ries themselves; while yet the committee believe, in agreement 
with the unanimous opinion of the missionaries, that any express 
directions from this Board, requiring them to adopt a course of 
proceeding on this subject essentially different from that which 
they have hitherto pursued, would be fraught with disastrous con- 
sequences to the mission, to the Indians, and to the African race 
among them. 

That the missionaries among these Indians have been faithful 
in their work seems evident, not only from their own statements, 
but also from the fact that the IJoly Spirit has most remarkably 
owned and blessed their labors; the hopeful converts among the 
Choctaws being proportionally more numerous, than those in any 
other mission connected with the Board, e.xcept that at the Sand- 
wich Islands. 

In the spirit and with the sentiments of one of our oldest mis- 
sionaries, who has now spent more than twenty-five years in 
Christian labors among these Indians — and these are believed to 
be the sentiments and the spirit of all the missionaries — the com- 
mittee would close their report. 

" I have," he remarks, " been more in the midst of the slave- 
holding population, and seen more of the pernicious effects of 
the system among the Indians, than some of my brethren. View- 
ed in all its bearings, it is a tremendous evil. Its destructive 
influence is seen on the morals of the tnaster and slave. It sweeps 
away those barriers which every civilized community has erected 
to protect the purity and chastity of the family relations. We 
also see its baneful effects on the rising generation. A great 
proportion of the red people who own slaves, neglect entirely to 
train their children to habits of industry, enterprise, and econo- 
my, so necessary in forming the character of the parent and the 
citizen. Slavery, so far as it extends, will ever present formida- 
ble obstacles to the right training of the rising generation. 

"But what is to be done? Shall we desert our churches 
and schools, and send back those who compose them to the 
shades of moral darkness and death, because some among them 



15 

own slaves? Is not the Choctaw nation a part of that world into 
which Christ coirimanded his disciples to go and preach the gos- 
pel to every creature? Can we expect the liali-enlighteiied, half- 
civilized Choctaws to proceed on this subject in advance of the 
white people in the States around them? or in advance of those 
churches in civilized and enlightened communities where slavery 
exists ? 

•' There can be no prospect of benefitting the slave, in a slave 
country, without the consent of the owner. The only hope we 
can have of benefiting either the one or the other, is through the 
influence of the gospel; and the gospel, to be effectual, must be 
conveyed in the spirit of meekness and love." 

LEONARD WOODS, 
EENNET TYLKR, 
RKUBEN H. WALWORTH, 
THOMAS VV WILLIAMS, 
CALVIN E. STOWE, 
BENJAMhN TAPPAN, 
DAVID SANFORD, 
JAMES W McLANE, 
DAVID GREEiNE. 

On the adoption of the foregoing Report, the following gentle- 
men voted in the affirmative, being all the members of the Board 
then present : 

Theodore Frelinglui3'sen, Thomas S. Williams, Jeremiah Day, Thomas 
DeWitt, Thomas McAuley, John Tappan, Henry Hill, Noah Porler, Rufus 
Anderson, David Greene, Charles Stoddard, William J Armstrontr, Levi 
Cutter, Nehemiah Adams, Joel Hawes, Elisha Yale, Thomas H. Skinner, 
Ambrose White, Samnel Fletcher, David Magie, John W. Ellingwood, 
Charles Walker, Pelatiali Peril, Benjamin Tappan, VViHiam R DeWilt, 
Lsaac Ferris, Thomas W. Williams, William W. Chester, Mark Hopkins, 
Reuben H. Walworth, Seth Terry, Daniel Dana, Zedekiah S. Baistow, 
William Darling, Edward W. Hooker, David Mack, William Page, Horatio 
Bardwell, Ebenezer Alden, Albert Fiarnes, William Jessiip, Arlemas Bul- 
lard, Anson G. Phelps, Hiram H. Seelye, Aristarchus Champion, Samuel 
H Cox, Thomas Punderson, Alvan Bond, John W. Adams, William T. 
Dwight, Leonard Bacon, Ansel D. Eddy, Joel Parker, J. Marshall Paul, 
Benjamin Labaree. Joseph Steele, Henry White, William Adams, Joel H. 
Lini^ley, William Wisner, William Patlon, William VV. Stone, Edward Rob- 
inson, David L. Ogden, Benjamin C. Taylor, Walter Hubbell, Samuel H. 
Perkins, Asa T. Hopkins, Selah B. Treat, Linus Child, Henry B. Hooker, 
John Forsyth, Baxter- Dickinson, Calvin E. Stowe. 

It was supposed that various other points connected with this 
general subject would, in the course of the deliberations at the 
annual meeting, come up for discussion or inquiry. Owing 
principally to want of time, they were not brought forward; and 
it is therefore deemed advisable, in connection with the foregointr 
Report, to spread before the friends of missions a statement of 
what has actually been done, in relation to all those points in any 
manner connected with slavery, respecting which impressions 



16 

have been entertained in the community unfavorable to the 
Board, or the missions under its care. 

Before taking up particular toj)ics, it may be proper to remark, 
in general, that it is not necessary to maintain that the missiona- 
ries, and those who have been more immediately employed to coun- 
sel and direct them, have always pursued the best possible course ; 
though it may be presumed that such has been their aim. duite 
probably they have attached too much importance to the difference 
in the circumstances under which foreign missions are now prose- 
cuted, compared with those of the apostolic missions, and so have 
been led to shape their plans and efforts too much for operating on 
communities of men, rather than for the immediate conversion of 
individuals. Experience has led to the belief that foreign mis- 
sions are practicable only as their object is, like that of the apos- 
tolical missions, the conversion of sinners through the cross of 
Christ, and placing the converts under a competent ministry. If 
missionaries to the heathen aim at much beyond this, they are in 
danger of becoming too much secularized, or entangled in politi- 
cal affairs, or distracted and perplexed with other matters incon- 
sistent with that high degree of spirituality which should be con- 
spicuous in their character and labors, and which is essential to 
their enjoying the united sympathy and co-operation of the friends 
of missions at home, or exerting the greatest and best influence 
on the mind of the heathen abroad. The universal and most 
powerful tendency among fallen men every where is to be wholly 
enorrossed about the relations of this life — the things of the 
world and of sense. The great aim of the missionary must be to 
turn their thoughts towards their spiritual and eternal interests. 
Probably the more the New Testament is searched for principles 
and models, and the more the lessons of experience are heeded 
on this point, the more decidedly will all candid minds be agreed 
upon it. 

Another general remark is, that the committee and the mis- 
sionaries have regarded it as a fundamental principle, from which 
they have never swerved from the beginning, that, in accordance 
with the tenor of the foregoing Report, the ordinances of baptism 
and the Lord's supper are not to be administered to professed 
converts until they give credible evidence of repentance and faith 
in Christ ; and that these ordinances arc not to be loithheld from 
such converts after the evidence of their regeneration is satisfac- 
tory to the missionary. These are the grand New Testament 
terms of Christian fellowship. Every error in doctrine or morals, 
not inconsistent with the convert's giving this evidence, as it 
does not prevent his being received by Christ, should not prevent 
his being received by the church, and can, among the heathen 
at least, be best corrected in the church. 

It is through the force of this principle, that rulers at the 
Sandwich Islands have come to the ordinances of the gospel be- 



17 

fore they had fully learned to govern their people according to 
the rules of the gospel. It is through the force of this principle 
that men of different castes in India have come together around 
the Lord's table, and there had the feeling of brotherhood towards 
all who love the Lord Jesus powerfully wrought upon and devel- 
oped, and so have gained strength and grace to trample the mon- 
ster under their feet. Moreover, it is through the force of this 
principle that a number of Cherokees and Choctaws, while yet 
slave-holders, have been admitted to the same table with a greater 
number of their slaves. This has been because the missionaries 
saw evidence, which was satisfactory to them, that these converts 
from heathenism, though imperfectly enlightened and sanctified, 
had been actually regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and made 
members of the household of faith. 

In proceeding to remark more particularly on the Board's 
alleged connection with slavery, a statement will first be made of 
the manner in which the missionaries have been brought into 
contact with it. 

In conducting the large boarding schools, early established by 
the Cherokee and Choctaw missions, a great amount of manual 
labor was unavoidable. The demand was at first attempted to be 
met by sending out laborers in the character of assistant mission- 
aries. Death, loss of health, and other causes, prevented the suc- 
cess of this arrangement. Free laborers, of a suitable character, 
could rarely be hired in those parts. If those schools were to be 
carried forward, the missionaries seemed shut up to the plan of 
hiring slaves. This, after much consideration, they decided to 
do, the wishes of the slave, however, always being consulted, and 
his condition in the mission family being made such that his term 
of labor there should be a matter of favor and advantage to him- 
self. Some of the missionaries among the Choctaws, as long ago 
as 1821, made known to the Committee their dissatisfaction with 
this arrangement, lest it should encourage slavery among the 
Indians. The subject came up, also, for consideration while Mr. 
Evarts was on a visit to this mission, and in his judgment the 
reasons preponderated in favor of continuing to hire slaves. But 
the opinions on this subject were not perfectly united, either in 
the mission, or in the Prudential Committee. In the year 1825, 
those missionaries who had conscientious scruples on the subject 
of hiring slaves, and allowing the wages to go to their masters, 
proposed, as a means of relieving their scruples, to make a for- 
mal agreement with the master and with the slave, that the latter 
should work a certain length of time, at a stipulated price per 
annum, and have his freedom at the end of it. To this proposal, 
believing it kind in design and correct in principle, the Commit- 
tee assented ; and the missionaries had the satisfaction of seeing 
several bondmen liberated by this means. The number thus lib- 
3 



18 

erated may have been twelve or fifteen. What is of more impor- 
tance, most of these were hopefully converted, taught to read the 
sacred Scriptures, and obtained much other useful knowledge, 
through this voluntary connection with the mission. But about 
nine years ago, some persons took occasion, from this arrange- 
ment, to represent the Board as actually a slave-holding institu- 
tion, which led the Committee to instruct the missionaries to re- 
linquish the plan, and release from their contract any who might 
not have completed their engagements. This is the whole of the 
ground on which the Board has been represented as holding 
slaves. 

In respect to sending forth missionaries who were slave-hold- 
ers, the following statement will show the origin of the male 
missionaries and assistant missionaries who have been sent forth 
by the Board, namely : 

From Maine 10 

New Hampshire, 34 

Vermont 44 

Massachusetts, 85 

Connecticut, 49 

New York, 71 

New Jersey, 16 

Pennsylvania, 17 

Ohio, 11 

Illinois, 3 

From the free States, but not certainly known which, 16 

356 

Delaware, 1 

Virginia, 5 

North Carolina, 4 

South Carolina, 5 

Kentucky, 3 

— 18 
Foreign lands, 6 

Total, 380 

It is the place of nativity which is here indicated. Two of 
the eisrhteen accredited to the slave-holding States, though born 
in them, actually went from Ohio. Excluding these, the number 
of the missionaries now in the field, who regard the Southern 
States as their home, is stuen, only one of whom is believed ever 
to have owned slaves, and he did not come into the possession of 
them by purchase. Reference is here had to the Rev. John 
Leighton Wilson, the pioneer in the West-African mission ; con- 
cerning whom, as his name has been so much before the public, 
it is but just to say, that there is not believed to be any where a 
more devoted, laborious, self-denying, and high-minded mission- 
ary. He explored the ground in 1833, and commenced his mis- 
sion in 1834. Before his embarkation, pains were taken to as- 
certain the character of his connection with his slaves, some fif- 



19 

teen or twenty in number. His entire repugnance to slavery 
was soon put beyond question, and also his intention to liberate 
his slaves as soon as he could effect it in a manner consistent 
with his views of their claims upon him. When Mr. Wilson 
embarked for Africa, it was with the intention and expectation 
of inducing the slaves to follow him to that continent, which, it 
was thought, would be a good arrangement; and this he effected 
in respect to all except two, and at a large expense for their out- 
fit, passage, and settlement. The two just referred to refused to 
go to Africa, or to any one of the Northern States, and his rela- 
tion to them was therefore continued, necessarily, as it seemed 
to him, much longer than he desired. At length he was able to 
make an arrangement in relation to them, which, it was believed, 
would be entirely satisfactory to all persons. As the circum- 
stances were stated to the Board by one of the secretaries two 
years ago ; and as it was virtually asserted also in the report of 
the committee on memorials thnt year, and again last year at 
Worcester, that no missionary holding slaves was connected 
with the Board, it is not deemed necessary now to say more 
than that Mr. Wilson is believed not to be a slaveholder in any 
sense of the term. 

Much has been said of the fact that certain corporate mem- 
bers of the Board are believed to hold slaves. The follow- 
ing statement will present the case as it is. In the year 1833, the 
synods of Virginia and North Carolina and the synod of South 
Carolina and Georgia organized boards for foreign missions, 
with the understanding that the funds and missionaries within 
their bounds should be at the disposal of the American Board. 
This movement was generally regarded, at the time, as cause 
for gratitude to God for thus bringing an accession of force 
into the field. And even now, who is there but will regret, 
that the spirit which was then enkindled in the southern 
churches, did not increase to a brighter and more lasting flame? 
As a consequence of this movement on the part of these synods, 
the presidents of the two southern boards and several other influ- 
ential members were, the following year, elected corporate mem- 
bers of the American Board. Four of these are now living, and two 
or three of the four, with one or two other members, who were 
elected nearly twenty years ago, are supposed to be owners of 
slaves. With the exception that one of these has attended one 
or two of the annual meetings, they have taken no part iri con- 
ducting the affairs of the Board. In the year 1837, the Central 
and Southern Boards, with the great body of the churches em- 
braced within their bounds, withdrew from this Board, and be- 
came connected with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Pres- 
byterian Churcl>. Probably tliese gentlemen seldom think of 
the merely nominal reJatiou which they sustain to this Board, or 



20 

attach too little importance to it themselves, and presume that 
others do also, to deem it worth while to go through the formality 
of resigning their places. 

Relative to receiving slaves by donation or legacy, it may be 
stated that there is an indistinct impression, on the part of one of 
the secretaries, that some slaves were left to the Board as a legacy, 
about the year 1629; but the name of the parties concerned is not 
remembered, and the impression is too indefinite to be much re- 
lied upon. As far as the remembrance goes, the legacy was at 
once declined. Certainly the Committee had no action upon it, 
and neither the slaves nor the avails were received by the Board. 
Anotlier case occurred in 1833, which was attended to by Dr. 
Wisner, while he conducted the domestic correspondence. Au- 
thority was given to a person to act in behalf of the Board, and 
it is presumed that Dr. Wisner, in the personal interviews which 
he had with him, knowing the views of the Committee, instructed 
him to decline the legacy. It is certain that nothing was ever 
received into the treasury from it. 

In two instances, the one occurring eight or ten, and the other 
five or six years ago, the Board was made residuary legatee to 
estates where a portion of the property was in slaves. But in 
neither of these instances has any portion of the residuum been 
offered to the Board by the executors, or come in any manner 
under its control. There has therefore been no opportunity for 
the Committee or the treasurer to accept or to refuse it. So that 
neither the Committee nor any officer of the Board has any knowl- 
edge, or any reason to believe, that a single dollar, which was the 
avails of a slave .■'old, ever came into the treasury. Nor has any 
slave ever been so given to the Board by donation or legacy, that 
he could have been lawfully received and made free. 

In one of the instances just adverted to, in which the Board 
was the residuary legatee, the testator, by his will, gave freedom 
to a company of slaves, and provided for their support. His 
method of doing it was not, however, consistent with the laws of 
the State, which, in such a case, regard the slaves so emancipated 
as the property of the residuary legatee. The Committee adopted 
what seemed to them the best means, and all the means in their 
power, to secure continued freedom to those slaves. 

This is believed to be a correct history of all that has been 
done on this point. 

On receiving and soliciting donations in the States where slaves 
are held, the following view has always been taken by the Com- 
mittee and secretaries : The New Testament seems to require all 
who have the gospel to aid in giving it to those who are destitute 
of it; nor does it seem to contain any warrant for forbidding or 
withholding facilities from, or refusing to co-<i»perate with, any 
who appear honestly to desire to obey the command of Christ on 



21 

this subject ; nor does the New Testament seem to discounte- 
nance the urging men to perform one class of plain duties, be- 
cause they very imperfectly perform, or even wholly refuse to 
perform, other duties which are believed to be incumbent on 
them. Whatever degree of sinfulness, therefore, may be attrib- 
uted to slave-holding, there does not seem to be any valid objec- 
tion against sending soliciting agents among a people, a portion 
of whom hold slaves, which would not lie against sending them 
into a community where many are engaged in manufacturing or 
vending intoxicating drinks, or in Sabbath labors, or in any other 
course of action violating the principles of piety and good mor- 
als and bearing on the acquisition of property; or even sending 
them into any district where the inhabitants trade extensively 
with a slave-holding district, and acquire their property in that 
manner. Entertaining these views, it has always been deemed 
right, so far as the instructions of the Bible, or any general prin- 
ciples of morals, or any bearings of the subject as a matter of 
Christian policy, are concerned, to pursue such measures for pro- 
moting the missionary spirit among the professed followers of 
Christ in the Southern States, and inciting them to perform their 
duty to the heathen, as would be proper in the Northern States ; 
leaving it to other persons to inculcate the performance of other 
duties at the South, as well as at the North. As a matter of fact, 
very few agents have been employed in the Southern States for 
ten years past. When returned missionaries have gone to the 
South, in the winter, for their health, they have been encour- 
aged to do all they could, according to their best discretion, to 
promote the missionary spirit wherever they might be. 

Reference has sometimes been made to the " receiving agents," 
who are appointed in every part of the country. With regard to 
these, it may be remarked that it is not a part of their duty to 
solicit funds, but only to receive and transmit them; nor, when 
receiving donations, are they expected to ask questions, "for 
conscience sake," of any donor ; nor does the treasurer at the 
Missionary House ; but, in the absence of proof to the contrary, it 
is always presumed that gifts to this sacred cause are the result 
of honest means and proper motives. 

It has been often alleged, and doubtless believed, that the 
Board has taken action, as a matter of business, in relation to 
subjects connected with other departments of benevolence, or 
expressed opinions on various social and moral evils; while, in 
respect to slavery, it has refused to pursue a similar course. 
For this there is no proper foundation in the history of the an- 
nual meetings of the Board. The actual business of the Board, 
as a deliberative body, has, without any exception, from the first, 
it is believed, been confined to the work of foreign missions. 
But as the attendance at the annual meeting became larger, it 



22 

seemed necessary to give greater variety and a more popular 
character to tlie meeting. From 1834, therefore, to 1840, the 
secretaries were accustomed, during the meetings, to draw up 
such resolutions, bearing on the great work of evangelizing the 
world, as they supposed none would think of objecting to, and of 
reading them consecutively on the last half day of the session — 
not as business from the Prudential Committee — not as business, 
in any sense, but to serve as a basis for short, animated addresses 
and devotional exercises. There were six or seven series of such 
resolutions, prepared at as many annual meetings, proposed after 
the business of the meeting was ended, each series containing 
from five to nine resolutions. It so happened that, in these forty 
or fifty resolutions, there were two that have attracted the atten- 
tion of those who would have the Board take action on the sub- 
ject of American slavery. One of these, read at Baltimore, in 
1835, is as follows : 

"Resolved, That this Board rejoice and give praise to Almigh- 
ty God, for that increase of Christian activity which is seen in 
the various institutions established during the last forty years for 
the prevention of sin in all its forms, and for removing from our 
guilty and sulYering race the evils which sin occasions; that they 
especially rejoice in tlie progress of the temperance reform, and 
of the principles of peace among the nations of Christendom; 
and that their earnest prayer is, that all these associations may 
continue to labor with wisdom and energy, and that others may 
be organized to co-operate with them, until the institutions of 
Christian benevolence shall present a front as extended as the 
ravages of sin; and, favored with guidance and power from on 
high, shall press forward in their joint labors to chase wickedness 
and misery from the earth." 

The other was read at Newark, in 1837, and is as follows : 

" Resolved, That, among the signs of the times, indicating the 
approach of the period, foretold in prophecy, and long desired 
and looked for by the church of God, when the gospel shall be 
proclaimed through the world, the Board regard with interest the 
present general peace of the earth — the extension of commerce 
and the peaceful arts — the progress of geographical research and 
discovery — the increasing facilities for inter-communication 
among different nations by means of railroads and steamboats — 
the multiplying demands in all parts of the world for sanctified 
talent and learning — the growing activity and power of the reli- 
gious press and of public opinion — the progressive subjection of 
barbarous languages to a written form by means of Christian 
missions, whereby the first intelligent use of these languages, in 
the communication of thought and feeling, is to exert a hallowed 
and elevating influence on those who speak them — and, finally, 



23 

the fact, more and more developed and established, that no sect 
or denomination of professed Christians can sustain a reputation 
for Christian character without laboring to extend the institu- 
tions and blessings of Christianity to pagan nations." 

This practice was interrupted at the annual meeting in Phila- 
delphia, in 1841, by a memorial, from a respectable quarter, 
deprecating the " studied silence" (as the memorialists called it) 
of the Board " on the subject of American slavery." The me- 
morial did not make allusion to these resolutions, but it gave oc- 
casion to references being made to them, which have been fre- 
quent ever since, and often with not a little misappreliension. It 
must be perceived, however, from tiie account now given of the 
desicrn of this class of resolutions, that any such allusion to 
slavery as the memorialists desired, could not reasonably be ex- 
pected in resolutions that were intended to sweep harmoniously 
over all the chords of feeling in the assembly. 

It has, however, been deemed suitable for the Board, or for 
the Prudential Committee, to take public notice, so far as sound 
discretion would warrant, of any facts, occurrences, or proceed- 
ings of men, in the tields of their several missions, which opposed 
the progress of their labors. Hence they have spoken freely of 
intemperance, licentiousness, and various outrages at the Sand- 
wich Islands, rather incidentally, however, and as a matter of 
history, and seldom as calling for any formal action. But in many 
cases occurring in the eastern world, the exercise of this liberty 
of public exposure and condemnation has been restrained by a 
regard for what were the obvious dictates of a sound Christian 
discretion. 

It has often been alleged, as already alluded to, that a " stud- 
ied silence" respecting slavery has been maintained by the 
Board and those immediately concerned in transacting its busi- 
ness. This is a misapprehension. There has been no inten- 
tional reserve on this subject. All the facts known, relating to 
those points in which the operations of the Board, or the missions 
under its care, bore in any manner on slavery, have, when asked 
for, been promptly and fully stated, both in conversation and 
writing, excepting only a recent case, where obvious reasons 
existed for pursuing a different course. The motives or reasons, 
under the influence of which members of the Board or of the 
Committee have given their votes, or have acted, on particular 
subjects, no one, it is presumed, besides themselves, has felt au- 
thorized or competent to give. All has been said which it was 
supposed to be proper for a missionary institution to say, organ- 
ized on such principles and for such an object as the Board. It 
was not organized for the purpose of exerting an influence against 
slavery by expressing opinions on that subject. Examining and 



24 

deciding hypothetical cases before-hand has always been avoided, 
it being deemed sufficient to decide cases which actually occur, 
each on its own merits, and according to the best light which 
can be had upon it at the time. Any other course than this 
would, it is believed, be undignified and unbecoming, and not 
only cause perplexity and disagreement among the friends of 
missions, but, before the lapse of many years, would undoubt- 
edly and justly cause to be withdrawn from the Board the con- 
fidence and respect of all its real friends. 

It seems often to be intimated, that those more immediately 
concerned in conducting the affairs of the Board and the mis- 
sions under its care, have had little regard for the Scriptures, or 
Christian principle, or the dictates of conscience, or the claims 
of humanity, in the course they have pursued ; that they have 
adopted a time-serving, compromising policy, without any defi- 
nite, well-considered reasons for their measures, unless it be to 
secure the favor and the contributions of those who hold slaves, 
and perhaps avoid doing what was desired by those denominated 
abolitionists ; and that, therefore, they can change their views 
and measures without any sacrifice of principle. If such is the 
opinion of any, it is wholly a misapprehension. It is hardly 
possible to conceive of any inducement for transacting the busi- 
ness of the Board and the missions, on such principles as these. 
If those engaged in this agency possess any honesty, their object 
is to spread a knowledge of the gospeH and give it effect on the 
minds of the heathen as widely and rapidly as possible. At- 
tempting this in a manner not approved and blessed by the Head 
of the church, they must know will be utterly in vain. The 
fact is, that whatever has been done, in any manner connected 
with slavery, has been done deliberately, in view of what were 
deemed sufficient reasons, and because it was believed to be right 
and conformed to the principles of the Scriptures and an en- 
larged Christian philanthropy. A desire to secure the favor or 
the contributions of one portion of the community, or to mani- 
fest antipathy to another portion, has never been among the mo- 
tives which have governed the action taken on this subject. A 
course different from that pursued could not have been adopted, 
without violating settled convictions of duty and doing what was 
believed to be wrong. Perseverance in that course has not, 
therefore, been the result of obstinacy, or inconsideration, or 
compromise. The manner in which some of the missions came 
into contact with slavery, was, as has been already intimated, 
brought to the notice of the Committee nearly twenty-five years 
ago; and the subject has since, especially during the last ten 
years, been often called up, in some shape, for renewed consid- 
eration. It may be supposed, therefore, that principles and a 
course of proceeding have been arrived at, which are believed 



25 

to be conformed to the instructions and examples of the New 
Testament, so far as they can be applied, and to be Christian 
and humane in their spirit and tendency. 

The idea that the Prudential Committee has restrained the 
missionaries in the expression of their anti-slavery views, is uith- 
out the least foundation in fact. The missionaries are and have 
ever been as free to write on this subject, as any ministers in the 
United States. Not a word has ever been written or said by the 
Committee or Secretaries to check them in this thing, unless 
exhorting them to make the conversion of the heathen to Christ 
their great business, be so considered ; and indeed there has 
rarely, if ever, been occasion for any such restraint with respect 
to the missionaries now actually connected with the Board. An 
anti-slavery society was formed, some years ago, at the Sandwich 
Islands, by members of the mission ; but whatever might have 
been thought of the expediency of forming such a society in 
those remote islands, it is not remembered that the thing has 
ever been alluded to, one way or another, in letters to that mis- 
sion. 

The rule adopted by the Board at Newark in 1837, " that no 
mission, or member of a mission, may print any letter, tract, or 
appeal, at the printing establishments connected with the mis- 
sions, at the expense of the Board, with a view to its being sent 
to individuals or communities in the United States," was de- 
signed to prevent a very manifest, though undesigned, misappli- 
cation of funds ; but the printing which gave rise to this rule, 
was all concerning the work of missions, and had no reference 
whatever to slavery. Slavery indeed is a subject, on which there 
has never been any misunderstanding or difficulty between the 
Committee or other officers of the Board and the missionaries, at 
the Sandwich Islands, or in any other field. Even the four 
brethren, of the mission just named, who asked a release from 
their connection with the Board, did not allude to the subject in 
any letters received from them at the Missionary House, so far 
as can be found during all their connection with the Board ; and 
it has never been supposed that this subject was among the 
causes which had an influence in leading them to desire a sep- 
aration from the Board. 

It has lately been intimated, that Mr. Evarts edited the Mis- 
sionary Herald on very different principles from those which 
have obtained since his time, opening its columns not merely to 
a notice of proceedings by others in behalf of great questions of 
Christian morals, but to a frank expression of opinion in regard 
to them, and an earnest and fearless advocacy of them. A i'evr 
Vi'-ords on this point may be proper. In the first place there is 
an exaggeration in the statement. But without dwelling upon 
4 



26 

that, it should be remarked, that from the organization of the 
Board in 1810 to January 1821 , the Missionary Herald, which 
was an integral part of the Panoplist, was tlie private property 
of Mr. Evarts, and conducted by him in his private capacity, 
and on his individual responsibility ; and that in the manner ot 
conducting it the Board was in nu way involved, except so far 
as its official documents were contained in it, and Mr. Evarts 
was acting as its treasurer. Since 1821 the editorial matter in 
the Herald has been principally prepared by other persons. One 
of the present Secretaries began his agency in it early in the 
year 1822, and another commenced his at the beginning of the 
year 1827. It has ever been an untrammelled agency, and the 
principle articles referred to in proof of the allegation were 
spontaneously inserted hi/ Secretaries now living, and not by Mr. 
Evarts. The notices of books from the year 1821 down to the 
time of his decease, were all inserted, it is believed, by them ; 
and so were the notices of temperance and of the Sabbath, in 
the year 1828, which have been singled out ; and so, it is be- 
lieved, have been all the notices of the anti-slavery and coloni- 
zation societies, that have appeared for three or four-and-twenty 
years past. The Missionary Herald has a character of its own ; 
and while some curtailment in the miscellaneous matter has been 
inevitable, owing to the increase and pressure of interesting 
intelligence from the missions, it has ever been an object and 
settled purpose, so far as the editors were concerned, to preserve 
that character unchanged. They have not hearkened, therefore, 
to the opponents of colonization, on the one hand, some of 
whom would have had the Colonization Society excluded from 
the annual notices of benevolent societies ; nor have they heark- 
ened to southern remonstrants, on the other, who have repeatedly 
called upon them to do the same with the Anti-Slavery Society. 
Those notices were designed to sive a fair historical and statisti- 
cal view of what was going forward m the various departments 
of benevolent action, without involving the Board with one party 
or another, on those or any kindred subjects. It is confidently 
believed that the Herald is the same now, in all important res- 
pects, as Mr. Evarts himself desired it to be, while he was 
laboring in connection with the Board. 

The present officers of the Board approved of Mr. Evarts de- 
voting what time and strength he actually did, (which was not 
very much) to the cause of tracts, education, the Sabbath, and 
some other general public interests — saying nothing of the 
Cherokee and Choctaw Indians ; for what he did for them came 
directly in his path as Secretary. Such had been Mr. Evarts's 
situation in the community for many years, and such his rela- 
tions to these various objects, and such his education and habits, 
that it was no doubt sometimes his duty to step aside from his 



27 

main business to take a prominent agency in connection with 
them. And this he could do, in that early stage of the foreign 
missionary enterprise, and while assistant secretaries were aiding 
in the editorial and epistolary labors of the Missionary Rooms. 
But it cannot be, that an intelligent community will regard it as 
a criminal defect in the present Secretaries, with a greatly in- 
creased official business and responsibility, and no such special 
calls upon them individually as there were upon him, if tliey do 
not turn aside to labor for the Tract Society, the Education So- 
ciety, the National Sabbath Society, the Temperance Society, 
the Anti-slavery Society, etc. etc. The fact is, the great depart- 
ments of benevolent operations are now all organized, and have 
their plans formed and their agents in the field, and their chan- 
nels of communication opened with the public; and if they had 
not, the Secretaries of the Board have as much as they can do, 
and ought to devote no more time to other objects, than is need- 
ful to preserve their mind and heart from being so engrossed in 
one object, however great, as would prevent their conducting 
that on those principles which an enlarged and candid estimate 
of its comparative importance and relations to other kindred 
objects would require. 

The foregoing statement is submitted to the friends of mis- 
sions to the heathen as a fair view of the facts, on all important 
points, so far as is remembered, having any relation to slavery, 
in respect to which unfavorable impressions have been enter- 
tained concerning the proceedings of the Board and officers, or 
the missionaries under its care. 



To the foregoing statement, it may be proper to append the 
Reports on this general subject, adopted by the Board at its an- 
nual meetings, in 1842 and 1844, as they present important prin- 
ciples which have governed its proceedings hitherto, and by which 
it seems necessary to abide. The former Report is as follows : 

The case of the Rev. John Leighton Wilson, a missionary of 
the Board to West Africa. It is stated in a letter from Mr. 
Wilson, that six years ago, and subsequently to his entering on 
the missionary work, he sustained the legal relation of owner to 
a number of slaves, who fell to him in consequence of a bequest 
made before his birth ; that he had offered to emancipate them, 
either in this country or in Liberia, and had done all which he 
deemed suitable to terminate a relation painful and burdensome 
to himself, while they had steadfastly refused ; and that he was, 



28 

at the time mentioned, desirous still to emancipate these slaves, 
if any mode could be pointed out, which should be just and kind 
to them. Whether Mr. Wilson has emancipated them, or what 
their situation has been during the last six years, or what it now 
[1842] is, your committee have no information. They understand, 
however, that the Secretaries of the Board have written to him, 
making inquiries on these points. With their present want of 
information, your committee deem it necessary to say nothing 
more, than that Mr. Wilson appears to have intended to act con- 
scientiously and humanely, relative to the slaves under his care. 
Still, if his relation to them is not already terminated, your com- 
mittee think it very desirable that it should be with as little 
delay as circumstances will permit ; and they cannot but think 
that he will ere long be able, with such counsel and aid as the 
Prudential Committee may give, to accomplish the object in a 
manner satisfactory to himself, and kind and beneficial to them. 
More information must be obtained before further action can 
properly be had. 

Your committee have no knowledge that any other missionary 
under the patronage of the Board stands in a similar relation to 
slavery. 

This Board, at their last annual meeting, in reply to a memo- 
rial from New Hampshire, endeavored very plainly to set forth 
the principles which have governed their proceedings, and the 
views they entertain respecting the general object of these me- 
morials ; and it was our hope that the course which was pur- 
sued would prove satisfactory to all concerned. And here your 
committee know not what better they can do, than to advert very 
briefly to the leading points contained in the report then adopted. 

It was stated that this Board was incorporated for the express 
" purpose of propagating tlie gospel in heathen lands, by sup- 
porting missionaries and diffusing a knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures;" that the Board have confined their efforts to this otie 
great object ; and that a regard to our sacred trust requires us to 
pursue the object with undivided zeal, and to guard watchfully 
against turning aside from it or mixing any other concerns with 
it. We referred to other works of benevolence, but insisted 
tiiat oi/r appropriate work is to propagate the gospel amovg the 
un(V(n)gclized. It was then, and still is, our deliberate convic- 
tion, that we are called by Divine Providence to adhere steadily 
to the plan of operation which has been adopted, and that the 
only way for us to prosper in our work, is to direct all our pro- 
ceedings, as a Board, and all the labors of our missionaries, to 
the one specified object of our organization. W^e think that our 
Lord and Master, aiid the Christian world now and in after ages, 
will approve this our deliberate course of action, and that we 
could not be justified in departing from it. 

In the report adopted latt year, we moreover expressed our 



29 

opinion, that, considering the character of this Board and the 
nature of its object, it may fairly be presumed, that the funds 
contributed to our treasury, are obtained in a proper manner and 
given from proper motives ; and that it is at least manifest that 
we cannot examine into the motives of those who sustain our 
operations, or into the origin of the funds which are contributed 
in furtherance of our object. We think no man, who well con- 
siders the subject, can judge differently from us on this point. 
As to the methods which the Prudential Committee are pursuing 
to secure funds, we know of nothing which any one could think 
exceptionable. 

From a hearty desire to satisfy the feelings of the ministers of 
the gospel, who sent us the memorial from New Hampshire, we 
also said with perfect frankness, ''that the Board of Cominissioncrs 
fur Foreign Missions can sustain no relation to slavery lohicli 
implies approbation of the system, and as a Board, can have no 
connection or sympathy with it," plainly intimating also that we 
consider it as one of the obvious evils which exist in the com- 
mnnity, but the removal of which, though we regard it as an 
object of fervent desire and prayer, does not fall within our 
province as a Missionary Board. These are our settled princi- 
ples. 

It is alleged by the memorialists that the Board has departed 
from these principles, and has expressed opinions relative to 
other prevailing evils. Respecting intemperance, licentiousness, 
Indian oppression, and some other hinderances to the progress of 
Christianity, as they prevailed in the countries where the mis- 
sions of the Board are established, and powerfully counteracted 
the labors of the missionaries, and in some instances subjected 
them to great peril, the Board has stated the facts as they oc- 
curred, and in various forms, more or less explicit, has uttered 
the language of condemnation. These evils, existing in the 
countries where the missions are operating, and standing directly 
in the way of the Board's accomplishing its object, were of 
course, legitimate and proper subjects for its animadversion. If 
it has at any time gone further than this, and expressed opinions 
relative to immoralities or evils of any kind, prevailing in this 
country, and not directly counteracting the labors of the mis- 
sionaries, your committee regard such action as a departure from 
the great principles on which the Board was organized, and by 
.which they think its proceedings should always be governed. 

And now what more shall we say ? Should we undertake to 
do justice to our own views on all the particular subjects hinted 
at in these memorials, it would occupy more time than can be 
afforded on this occasion, and would naturally lead on to discus- 
sions in which this Board cannot engage, and which must be left 
to those who may write and speak on their own individual 
responsibility. 



30 

It should be kept in mind, that the work of this Board lias not 
been done in a corner. Its proceedings are open to the scrutiny 
of the public. Any one who will examine the matter, will have 
no need to inquire of us what are our principles and our modes 
of action. They are written in our various Reports and other 
printed documents. They are exhibited in noon-day light in the 
extensive fields we occupy, and in the success with which the 
God of missions has mercifully crowned our feeble efibrts. 

The difficulties which we have found it necessary to encoun- 
ter have been innumerable, and our hearts have many a time 
been ready to yield to discouragement. Out of the depths we 
have often cried unto the Lord ; and he hath heard our voice, 
and hatli called forth songs of thanksgiving and praise. 

And now, feeling ourselves bound forever to this sacred and 
momentous cause, and being resolved, in the best use of the 
powers which God has given us, and with the co-operation of his 
people and the help of his grace, to go straight forward in our 
work, we aflectionately invite all who love the cause of missions, 
and who can conscientiously assist us with their prayers and 
their charities, to join with us in our undertaking, and to share with 
us in our labors, our trials, and our pleasures. But if any are 
so dissatisfied wiih our principles or our proceedings, that they 
deem it their duty to promote the spread of the gospel through 
some other channel, we shall indeed be sorry to be deprived of 
the help they might afford us ; but we do not wish to curtail 
their liberty. 



The Report adopted by the Board, at the annual meeting in 
1844, is as follows: 

The petitions referred to the committee are three, and two of 
them are without date. In the first and second, this Board are 
requested and urged to take measures to prevent receiving into 
their treasury any moneys contributed, in one way or another, by 
slave-holders, or any of the avails of slave labor. In the other 
we are desired also to pass resolutions declaring that " American 
slavery is a sin against God and man, and ought to be immedi- 
ately abolished ; and that we will not employ missionaries or 
agents who are slave-holders." 

In regard to the above request as to missionaries and agents, 
this committee are not able to find what reason the petitioners 
can have for making such a request, as it is not known that there 
is at present any complaint, or any ground of complaint, against 
the doings of the Board in respect to this subject, inasmuch as 
they have no missionaries or agents who are slave-holders. We 
did suppose that the particular and full information which has 



31 

been given of late on this subject is, and must be, satisfactory to 
the friends of the cause in which we are engaged. 

As to the other subjects touched upon in these two petitions, 
that is, the declaration we are requested to make as to slavery, 
and the measures we are requested to adopt, the committee are 
unable to recommend any thing more, and they think the Board 
would not be inclined to do any thing more, than to refer the pe- 
titioners to the reports which have been made and unanimously 
accepted on the same subjects at previous meetings. In those 
reports the Board have set forth, as plainly as possible, the views 
they entertain on these subjects, and the principles which have 
governed their proceedings. They have stated, what is never to 
be forgotten, that the Board was established and incorporated for 
the express purpose of propagating the gospel in heathen lands, 
by supporting missionaries and diffusing a knowledge of the 
Scriptures; that the Board have confined themselves to this ore 
great object, and that a regard to our sacred trust requires us to 
pursue the object with undivided zeal, and not to turn aside from 
it, or mix any other concerns with it. And we still think that 
the Lord of missions and the Savior of the world will approve of 
this deliberate purpose of ours and this course of action, and 
would frown upon us, if we should depart from it. And we have 
the comfort to believe, also, that this is the only purpose and 
course of action which will give permanent satisfaction to the 
Christian community, who are enlisted in the cause of missions; 
being fully persuaded that any essential departure from this plan 
of operation would tend to defeat the great end we are pursuing, 
— the conversion of the heathen. 

As to the moneys contributed by slave-holders, it is still our 
opinion that, considering the character of the Board, and the na- 
ture of its objects, it may fairly be presumed that the funds con- 
tributed to our treasury are obtained in a proper manner, and 
contributed from right motives; and that it is very manifest that 
we cannot properly examine into the motives of those who sus- 
tain our operations ; and that an attempt to do this would be 
marked with absurdity, and would plunge us into difficulties 
from which we could not be easily extricated. 

It will not, we trust, be overlooked that, in reply to previous 
petitions, the Board has repeatedly and very frankly declared that 
ihey can sustain no relation to slavery which implies approbation 
of the system, and, as a Board, can have no connection or sympa- 
thy ivith it; "plainly intimating that we consider it one of the 
obvious evils which exist in the community, but the removal of 
which, though we regard it as an object of fervent desire and 
prayer, does not fall within our province as a missionary Board." 
We know not how any man, who maturely considers the subject, 
can desire more than this. And it is quite certain that, without 
a change of views, the Board can do nothing beyond this. 



32 

The Prudential Committee, tlie Secretaries, and the Members 
of this Board, are manifestly enlisted in one of the greatest, most 
benevolent, and most successful enterprises ever undertaken by 
man. We glory in the cross of Christ. We glory in that work 
for the salvation of men, and the approaching conversion of the 
world, which depends upon that cross, and results from it. We 
most heartily invite Christians to unite with us, and shall thank 
and honor all who help to sustain this pious undertaking, and 
who contribute of their property and their prayers to aid this 
blessed cause. With any of our brethren who are dissatisfied 
with our doings, we can have no controversy or contention. We 
cannot turn aside from our arduous work for the purpose of strife. 
We have no time for strife ; and our Lord forbids us to engage 
in strife. If any of our brethren soberly think that they can do 
the will of God, and advance his cause in some other way better 
than by joining their efforts with ours, we will be so far from 
complaining of them for following their own convictions, that we 
will pray God to guide them by wisdom from above, and will re- 
joice in all they do to spread the gospel of Christ. 

The last petition above mentioned refers to a new subject, that 
is, the existence of slavery among some of our missionary 
churches, particularly among the Choctaws and other Indian 
tribes, and requests that the Board would take measures to ascer-* 
tain the facts in the case. In conformity with this request, the 
committee have made use of all the means in their power, and some 
of them of special importance, in order to ascertain these facts. 
And, so far as they are at present informed, they see no reason 
to cbarge the missionaries among the Choctaws, or any where 
else, with either a violation or neglect of duty. But it has been 
impossible, in so short a time, to obtain tliat exact and complete 
information on the subject which is indispensably necessary to a 
full and satisfactory report. The committee must, therefore, for 
the reason suggested, ask the Board to receive what is now offer- 
ed, as their report in part on the above-mentioned memorials, and 
request that they may have time to make a thorough inquiry into 
the state of the churches in our various missionary stations in re- 
gard to slavery, and, with the help of the information thus ob- 
tained, to prepare a report on this part of the subject committed 
to them, to be presented to the Board at their next annual meet- 
ing. And may the Lord grant that, on this and on every sub- 
ject relating to the high and holy work of the world's salvation, 
all who love the name of Jesus may be of the same mind and 
judgment, and love one another with pure hearts fervently. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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